My first good character

Game Talk The Bunker
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I finally got a character to survive more than three days, and things are going absolutely swell. They modded/cobbled together a vehicle that has survived a few explosions so far

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My character is regularly subjected to attacks by packs of special zombies and faced down a tear in reality his fifth day. He has spent most of the cataclysm in either agonizing pain, drugged out of his mind, or starving to death. I got lucky and found a zweihander and naginata early on in the third day, and got lucky and got access to a lab on day 13. !
Is my character doing well for this point in the game, and how can I improve them?

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That car name.

Well, anyway, you could just leave the city and go ram a couple of animals in the wild. That’d get you some food, at least. There are also some cars on the roads and highways far from cities and zombies, so you could probably salvage them to get some new stuff for your own Monster Vehicle of Doom. That is, if you have the tools. But since you do have a swapped engine, you should have enough tools to tear some cars apart. A solar powered car would be nice, along with some batteries. You could also leave the city to get to the sweet underbrush and sweet wild veggies.
Seriously. The cities are nice to get stuff otherwise uncraftable or hard-to-get in the wild, but trying to clear the whole metropolitain area with your bare fists… Just grab what you need and get away from there. After all, if you get yourself some food and water, you should be able to at least make some rams for your car to help you clear some small towns. (Also ramming the zombie horde and taking a quick trip to the gun store might prove useful, just be sure to put some rams first, otherwise you might end up with a broken down car in a middle of a zombie horde with nothing but some throwing sticks.)

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He’s doing OK. Could use better gear, armor, and weapons like guns and such, but those things can come later. Personally, next step for me would be getting LEGIT armor if you’re going to run a melee character, at at least a shotgun or heavy pistol for when you get into serious trouble. Also, stock up on books and drugs–very helpful.

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Ive played 50-100 games before, and this is the first time I did something other than pure melee. I’m uber paranoid about crashing my car, so i tend to fight zombies on foot. Ive cleared out a mall and a FEMA camp, so I’m fairly confident in my ability to take on hordes. Im trying to get enough mechanics to get a pneumatic assault rifle, as I heard that ranged combat is almost nothing compared to melee with almost no ammo available apart from robots. Being able to make my own ammo would void one of those issues. If i can avoid shoving food in my mouth immediately, ill try to cook some longer lasting food and live off the land. Thanks for the advice though!

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I agree I probably need some better gear, and armor, and pretty much everything… although I should focus on getting some actual armor(or wood duct taped together, at the very least). So far Ive been unlucky with books, and I’ve only found books on economics or high level cookbooks. The town I’m in has a library guarded by two or one shocker brutes, but I should be able to take them on. As for the firearms, I made a double barreled pipe shotgun and Ive got around 20-40ish bird shot in my trunk, as well as a battleaxe and a forked spear, with various other weaponry scattered about. And I take every drug I can find. No exceptions, and its been a lifesaver. Thanks for the advice!

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Also, what do you call your shit/deathmobile?

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I’ve called mine ‘RoseRide’

Well, about those guns… I’d recommend you to make a repeating crossbow since, firstly, all the ammo for the pneumo rifle, except for pebbles (rocks+hammer), require some sort of smelting (glass->marbles; lead->pellets; steel->bearings), and secondly (this is IMPORTANT), the pneumo rifle is loaded one round at a time, with around 30 seconds for a round. This means that if you’re into battle, you have only 15 rounds to shoot, then you have to either switch weapons, or run away (I simply run away and reload, but if you’re cornered… well, you know). The repeating crossbow, on the other hand, while having a much lesser range, no auto mode and lower damage, utilizes much easier-to-get ammo and takes TWO GODDAMN SECONDS to reload THE WHOLE TEN-BOLT MAG (this is probably too OP and will be removed, but works at the moment).

About ramming: if you get your car’s frontal area fully covered in rams (I use spiked rams), you will be able to crush zombies with little to no effort, though pay attention to your speed and other obstacles, otherwise you may just crash into a wall while chasing some poor zombie child, and that, yeah, that’s gonna hurt. (note: always use a seatbelt)

About hordes: hordes are okay if you’re a nice brawler. But things tend to get ugly when you meet some zombie masters and their Death Incarnations in the form of Shockers, Hulks and Brutes. Also, Shocker Brutes. Also, lots of wounds and medkits used. Why even let them bite you?

About ammo: good news! You actually are able to craft your own ammo. Bad news: of only some types. Good news: those are the shotgun ammo, and what’s better than a shotgun slug to the face? I’m not really sure if you can craft that in a fully vanilla game, but you don’t need any mods, other than pre-packaged, to craft those. You can also craft paper cartridges for flintlock rifles, pistols and old revolvers, probably with ‘Antique something’ mod, which is quite neat, as this stuff is easy to make. All you need is wood and salt water, a lot of time and power (which is free if you manage to get some solar panels and storage batteries) and some on-board equipment (like FOODCO Kitchen Buddy or such). Though producing black gunpowder and hand-loading ammo is still a mystery for a new character and you’ll need to find some books. So consider using renewable and easy-to-make stuff like arrows, bolts or pebbles first.

Hope this helps.

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I changed my APC’s name to “Always Prepared Car”, but I guess I could name it “A Piece of Crap” and it could be your car’s twin… haha.
Are you playing stable? They changed the cash cards to show actual dollars and cents now, and I noticed yours still show just cents.
Like others have said, maybe trying to get some better armor, and keep trying to get your skills up. Books and/or NPCs can help with that, as well as just doing stuff in the game relevant to the skill. If you get your tailoring skills up, you could make some pretty decent armor for yourself.
Also, if you get your mechanics up to 8, you could install a second engine as a backup. I like to use electric usually, and also add some solar panels on top. Just be careful of adding them on the outside tile, rather than an inner tile, as they tend to break if you ram a lot of things. Though, it sounds like you have a good plan of getting out and fighting rather than ramming.
Also you can add rams or spikes to the front, i do see you have one, but they can help as a buffer when you do ram things. Just make sure to repair after ramming because stuff will eventually break.
Keep up the good work and try to survive as long as you can!

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Armor. Find a leather jacket, and try and pad every part of your body with something, simple leather gloves and boots would work. Combat boots and tactical gloves are better. If you can, find a single zombie and take it down to near death, put on as much clothes you can (over encumbered is fine) like blankets and shit and train dodge, trust me 3+ dodge and you’ll be able to handle yourself really well in melee.

I recommend getting dodge as high as you can. Go from zombies to tough zombies and beyond. Around 5 dodge and you’ll be able to take on brutes no problem.

Spears have reach attacks (Press F) so you can kite and kill enemies from afar. Useful for near death or weak characters with little health.

Level computers up and loot banks, if you have a stethoscope and good mechanics level you can get a RM13 combat armor suit with a little luck. Pretty good armor and resistances, full coverage. Even better when powered with plutonium cells

Also, your chest and head are pretty important. If the health bar goes to zero on those you die. Your limbs can be broken and still recover. So I recommend finding armor for your head and torso as a priority

Try and find a funnel and put something like a jerrycan under it for when it rains. That way you can get a decent amount of water.

Hunt or forage bushes for wild vegetables, either or finds a reliable amount of early food.

I got a pretty decent newbie guide, see if anything there helps:

ROT’S GUIDE TO THE CATACLYSM

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It is actually possible to fit a funnel on a vehicle, and it will fill any tank in the same square, up to 60 liter tanks. Funnels are cool. Not running around to get water but carrying the whole system with you is much better.

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It is, have a water purifier and faucet on board and you’re set.

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I knew all of this from reading the wiki guides(outdated, but useful), but your guide has quite a bit of useful info. Good job on making that! I found an electric jackhammer so I should be able to break into bank vaults, the tricky part is finding the stethoscope.

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Oh, well. The clinics. Doctors’ offices. You know. Medical stuff.

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I didn’t know that it took that long to reload the pneumatic assault rifle, that’s definitively a deal breaker for me. I’ll try making the repeating crossbow, and I don’t think the devs are going to nerf it anytime soon. It’s probably based off of the Chinese repeating crossbow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow), and those were used for literal millennia due to how effective they were in combat and defense. I’m looking to get some more rams to KILL ALL THE ZOMBIES, just haven’t got the opportunity to scavenge them yet. My character is badly wounded due to a gas explosion, not due to any zombies right now. Im looking forward to fighting a zombie master, as they could spawn shocker zombies, which one outta three times gives me a new CBM. not so excited about the spitters and necromancers, though.

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Don’t get me wrong, a pneumo rifle is more than capable of dealing with zombies, due to its high damage, but it still needs a backup weapon just in case. If you’re going for a ranged character, the torso encumbrance won’t matter a bit, so you can easily wear a crossbow and a shotgun (or blunderbuss) in addition to the pneumo. Just keep in mind those HUGE reloading times.

As for the rams, well, they’re easily craftable and you don’t need to salvage them. Even simple ones will do. At least, against ordinary zombies.

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Have you tried foraging for food? There is almost always a forest near by, and there is more than enough wild vegetables and other comestibles to keep you well fed from day one.

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Pinecones, also. Acorns, roots and nuts.

BTW, what’s the point in pine bough tea? No vitamins, lesser quench stat than its components, requires some time to make… What’s the use?

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